In response to Why I'm Never Going to "Two-Bit" China an anonymous reader sent links to a video on how US companies are forced to cooperate with China and an article on "Xi's China" from the Daily Beast.
Both may be a bit over the top, or not, in the eyes of the viewer. Let's start with the video from China Uncensored.
China Tells US Tech Companies to "Cooperate"
Xi's China: A Place Called Hopelessness
Next please consider Xi's China: A Place Called Hopelessness
As China's President Xi Jinping visits the United States this week, Americans will have little sense what it's like for his people back home. His top internet censor, Lu Wei, organized a technology summit in Seattle earlier this week. Alibaba's Jack Ma and Apple's Tim Cook have been in tow, in addition to other tech giants. After a round of diplomatic pomp in Washington D.C., President Xi will address the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Monday before returning to Beijing in time for National Day celebrations at home. His message will be of success in the present and for the future.
Ask the ant tribe. They're educated, young professionals who live in near-poverty conditions, grinding away at soul-crushing jobs -- not careers -- that yield no personal satisfaction and zero financial growth. Typically from rural areas, most have settled in northwest Beijing, where their living quarters are cramped and they have no personal space. They're smart, they work hard, yet receive no recognition and can't shake off anonymity. So, people call them ants.
This year, nearly 7.5 million fresh Chinese university graduates entered the workforce, or attempted to. But because of the massive influx of new labor, increased year on year, competition has become cutthroat even as salaries have fallen, in some cases, lower than the wages received by factory workers. Cost of living continues to increase in tier-one cities, and prospects for members of the ant tribe eventually to own their own houses are slim. "I'll never be able to get married and provide for a family. I feel like I'll always be stuck in these six square meters," groaned Xiao. Rent is ¥1300, or about US$200, a month. That may not seem like much, but after other expenses, most of Xiao's ¥3,300 ($520) paycheck is gone.
In the fantasy world that the Chinese Communist Party has created for its revised history books, the state takes care of every citizen. But the ant tribe knows firsthand that this is not the case. Calling the Chinese president by his nickname, Xiao said, "Xi Dada says the youth are this country's future, but most of us don't have any opportunities. We graduated from university but there aren't any jobs available to us, at least not in the subjects we studied."
Xi Jinping's crusade against corruption has "swatted flies" and "hunted tigers," who conveniently are the Chinese leader's political enemies. China's millionaires can't leave the country fast enough. China's rural areas have a gaping security vacuum; forced demolitions, evictions, and land seizures still take place frequently, at times with deadly results. Soon, the CCP will begin transforming 82,000 square miles of land around Beijing into a megacity that's about the size of Kansas, and it will hold over 100 million people, or more than one-third of America's population. What will the ant tribe look like when that time comes? What does it mean for Chinese society when routine overtakes imagination, if it hasn't already?
China is hardly the miracle its proponents make it out to be. And it's system of government outright sucks.
Make statements like that in China and you will get arrested, or worse.
